Robot 6

I had a hard time deciding what comic to feature here this week, so I figured what the heck–let’s not pick just one. So here are round-ups for three different comics this week, two first issues and the presumably concluding chapter to a big ol’ Alan Moore epic. So without further ado …

Bobby Shortle, Talking Comics: “The Hypernaturals #1, a new superhero science fiction yarn from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, is a fun, but flawed tale that suffers from a slow start and its inability to bring anything new to the table.”

Benjamin Bailey, IGN: “Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning do cosmic superheroes better than anyone today. They practically wrote the book on it. That’s what really makes this book such a letdown. Nothing happens within these pages that you have not read many times before. This issue hits so many cliches of the superhero genre it borders on silly. It’s hard to tell where exactly Abnett and Lanning are going with this story, but right now there is nothing to grasp on to and be interested in. It’s the same old song and dance. There is no hook; nothing to set it apart.”

Martin Gray, Too Dangerous for a Girl: “Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Brad Walker’s sci-fi super-team concept debuted with a zero issue on Free Comics Day earlier this year, but if you’ve not read that, dive right in anyway. They couldn’t make it any easier, presenting not just an engrossing story, but prefacing it with background material and supplementing it with a magazine-style focus on Bewilder. There are even a couple of in-world adverts to add texture.”

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century 2009

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009
Written by Alan Moore
Art by Kevin O’Neill
Published by Top Shelf

Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool: “It is impossible to read this book without playing spot-the-reference, I find it as much a joy or a puzzle as the rest of the book. The wit and skill is as impressive as ever. From an ad for Aquaman 2 (the sequel to the fictitious film in Entourage), to the many Jimmy Bonds to the crew of 24 being drafted in to solve problems from the West Wing, it’s an entertaining endeavour that enriches rather than distracts from the reading experience. Footnotes embedded into the images themselves, it’s a particularly unique comic book trick, the graphic immediacy of film combined with the considered reader-controlled speed, here used to the maximum, allowing the reader to make the choice of how they experience the story. It is, to all intents and purposes an all signing and dancing multimedia comic, that just happens to be printed on paper.”

James Hunt, Comic Book Resources: “It’s impossible to fully articulate the level of genius at work here. Moore’s script and O’Neill’s artwork are as close to perfect as any comics team has ever managed. Not content with being technically brilliant, the creative team manages to find new ways to use the comics form. Quite simply, this story couldn’t be told in any other way than as a comic, and that’s a criteria that too few comics manage to fulfill.”

Chad Nevett, GraphiContent: “I really loved the exploration of how living forever (or damn near it) can fuck you up. That’s, by far, the most interesting thing about this to me. The fictional games are fun, but there’s not much to them. Nor is the nostalgia/dislike of the modernity that seems to crop up a lot. The journey of these characters, even just across the three books that make up Century, though, is really engaging and where I connect.”

Fatima #1

Fatima: The Blood Spinners #1
Written and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez
Published by Dark Horse Comics

Some nice fellow, Stumptown Trade Review: “For so long, the zombie genre has been saturated with “ragtag groups of people trying to survive”. Fatima is not just a survivor, she is a soldier. She is a killer. She is out on the streets killing the killers. In short, she is an action hero. She is Sarah Connor. She is Alice. She is Ripley. She is everything that a confident action hero should be.”

Edward Kaye, Newsarama: “Hernandez’s linework is filled with intense detail, and his brushwork is just out of this world. Every panel is packed with voluptuous women, zombies, gore, and ultra-violence. This comic is crazy — it’s like Love & Rockets & Zombies.”

f.a.i.t., wizard is Oz: “I must have been living with my head in the sand because I had no idea who Gilbert Hernandez was before this issue. People that I know had such rave reviews for his work over the years that I sat down to look at this issue threw excited eyes. Here is what they saw. Right off the bat you see the art is very much an indie style book which coming from Dark Horse surprised me somewhat. Till I learned was this his style and even then I still find it charming with a distinct quality about it that kind of says that he has a passion for what he does and yet a sense of humor while doing as well. Now Fatima the main character has the proportions of a classic pin-up girl, though her face is a tad manly.”